Dixie Work Hits Three Churches

COMMUNITY NEWS

DEERFIELD BEACH — A $12 million project to widen Dixie Highway between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard/Hammondville Road and Hillsboro Boulevard will impact three churches.

One of the oldest churches in the city, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 441 S. Dixie Highway, will be torn down later this summer.

"They're not being forced to disband the congregation," said Andrew Wells, right-of-way project coordinator for the state Department of Transportation. "They're going to build another church close by."

The First Church Of God In Christ, 957 S. Dixie Highway, plans to move its one-story building to a bigger lot less than a mile away.

The House of Christ, 881 S. Dixie Highway, lost the front part of its building to the project but was able to remain in the same location after replacing its facade.

Joe Borello, design project manager for the Dixie Highway widening in north Broward, said the state will widen the road from two to five lanes from Pompano Beach to Deerfield Beach.

The construction will be done under two contracts: The two-mile segment between Hammondville Road and Copans Road could begin as early as January. The four-mile section between Copans Road and Hillsboro Boulevard could start as early as next April.

To widen the road, the project required acquiring right-of-way property along the highway from numerous landowners.

"Where we can't negotiate a price, we have to condemn it," Borello said.

In some cases, the state will pay the cost of moving a business or homeowner to another site.

In other cases, property owners who can't reach a settlement with the state will end up having the value of their property decided by a jury.

Wells said the Dixie Highway corridor was lined with homes, car lots, bars, other businesses, three churches and some boarding homes. He said about 80 businesses and 50 residential properties were affected by the project.

St. Mary's Episcopal Church turned its building over to the state Department of Transportation on Thursday.

The church, which dates back to the early 1900s, was built on farmland.

"It's the church where I was baptized as an infant and confirmed as a young girl," said County Commissioner Sylvia Poitier, a Deerfield Beach resident and a member of St. Mary's congregation.

St. Mary's parishoners agreed to worship at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in downtown Boca Raton while their new church is being built.